One policeman was killed and 35 others were injured on Thursday when a car bomb exploded near an Egyptian police building in the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya.

One policeman was killed and 35 others were injured on Thursday when a car bomb exploded near an Egyptian police building in the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya.

Security officials reported the bombing, adding it was followed by gunshots. Witnesses said the noise of the blast was huge and that several ambulances rushed to the scene.

The interior ministry gave a casualty toll of one policeman killed and 18 people wounded, including six civilians.

Ismailiya and surrounding areas in the Sinai have seen regular militant attacks on police and military personnel, especially since the military toppled ousted president Mohammad Mursi.

An Al-Qaeda-inspired group operating in the Sinai Peninsula, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, has claimed several of these attacks, including a car bombing outside a military building in Ismailiya on October 19 that wounded six soldiers.

The group had also claimed a car bombing in September that targeted the convoy of Egypt's interior minister Mohammad Ibrahim in Cairo. He was not hurt in that attack.

The military has been conducting an extensive operation in the Sinai Peninsula, east of the Suez Canal, to track down Islamist militants.